Eastern State Hospital (Kentucky) facts for kids

Eastern State Hospital, located in Lexington, Kentucky, is the second oldest Psychiatric Hospital in the United States. It operates today as a psychiatric hospital with 239 beds providing inpatient care.

Location

There were three main buildings where the treatment units were located on the former campus: The Main Building (a section of which is the original building; the remainder was built between 1835 and 1870); the Wendell Building, which was occupied in 1953; and the Allen Building, occupied in 1957. When it was first established, the name of the hospital was the Lunatic Asylum. In 1876, it was called Eastern Kentucky Lunatic Asylum. On January 2, 1912, the General Assembly, Commonwealth of Kentucky, officially renamed the facility Eastern State Hospital. During the 1960s there was a growth of the community mental health system throughout Kentucky until there was a center in most counties. These centers treated many people as outpatients thereby reducing the number of persons needing admission to an inpatient facility. In 1970, Kentucky state mental institutions converted to the geographic unit system. In the past, hospital residents had been placed according to their problem or diagnosis. Under the geographic unit system, residents were placed onwards according to the geographic area of the state from which they came. This facilitated hospital and comprehensive care staff communication. In 1975, the hospital was again reorganized into treatment services based on patient need.

On September 10, 2013, the hospital moved to its new facility. In partnership with the University of Kentucky's UK HealthCare, Eastern State has built a $129 million facility in which they will now house their patients (roughly 250–300). The facility is one large building with three large, three-story towers, named after the old buildings from the 4th Street campus (Gragg, Allen, and Wendell). Most of the original buildings were demolished by December 2013. All that remains are the administration and laundry buildings despite preservation attempts.

Cemetery

Patients who were unknown, had families unable to pay to have their relative brought home, or patients who went unclaimed were buried on the hospital property from 1824 until 1954. The cemeteries were moved at least twice to the current location behind the Hope Center in 1984. The state acknowledges about 4,400 remains in the cemetery, but the number might be higher. The number of unmarked graves on the property is unknown. As work progresses on the property, any remains found there will be re-interred at this cemetery.

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  Article from the Richmond Enquirer, Nov 30, 1830